


Corona

by Nvos



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 04:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14730047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nvos/pseuds/Nvos
Summary: Asgard may be not a place—yet the stage for countless memories, of every emotional stripe and color—was now an asteroid belt adrift in dead space.





	Corona

“A part of me thought you’d never come back.”

  
“Is that why you said I was late on the Bifrost?”

  
They both laughed.

  
Thor and Loki were seated on the roof of the massive dropship that the Revengers had used to save Asgard, precious oxygen encapsulated by the ship’s invisible asteroid deflection shield. It sailed the universe with a taken, guarded hum, thrusters set to low as it conserved energy for jettying to Earth some hundred thousand billion miles away. Out here in the cold but dazzling kaleidoscope of distant space, nebulae and stars, they were reminded of the constellations from home.

  
“Well, I also thought you wouldn’t come back after releasing Surtur.”

  
“And go where?”

  
“I don’t know. Wherever you go when you leave.”

  
“I hate to break it to you, Thor, but I’m a bit hamstrung when the realm is quite literally imploding into itself. Not a great many places to go.”

  
Loki caught his look; Thor appeared almost surprised by the admission.

  
He put on a lopsided grin. “Yes, it’s true. I can’t just disappear whenever I want, to wherever I want.”

  
“I never knew.”

  
Thor mirrored him when Loki furrowed his brows as if to say, _What’s that supposed to mean?_ , then rolled his eyes. Typical.

  
“Listen,” Loki said, standing up, “Happy to have the _heart to heart_ , but—”

  
Thor had him by the arm.

  
“Stay.”

  
“You know I was never very good at _staying_ , brother.”

  
“And you, brother, know that I have a strong grip.”

  
Loki found himself laughing again, and so did Thor, they laughed together and Loki was yanked to the ground, Thor using his hands to pull him around and into a tight, bone-flexing hug, Loki’s head now in the crook of his shoulder.

  
“Are you really going to settle Asgard on Midgard?”

  
“Until I can think of a better place. Our people are weary. We all deserve a time of rest.”

  
“Who’s ‘we’?”

  
Thor looked down at Loki, inscrutable.

  
“They’re your people too. Or are we going to forget all the times you’ve made a run for the throne?”

  
Loki huffed. “I suppose I _did_ rule them for some brief length of time, several times.”

  
“For _two years_ , Loki. We may live long, but if you were truly incompetent as a ruler, Asgard would have pieced it together by week two. A golden statue before the hall and a badly written play is nothing compared to what you could have done… even if you _were_ entirely unconcerned about every other realm _not_ named Asgard.”

  
Beat. Loki glanced up.

  
“Was the play _that_ bad?”

  
Thor looked away. “I didn’t find myself enjoying it…”

  
_Tch!_ Loki hit a mutter of annoyance.

  
“Does that mean you were the one that wrote it? I’m sorry, brother. Perhaps the path of playwright is one hidden to you.”

  
Loki continued to mutter; Thor turned his attention back on the stars. A whole galactic horizon stretched before them, besotted by orange and speckled by thousands of white dots. One of those, seated in the far corner and marked by its milky veneer, would be the star of Midgard, bordered by hundreds of her sisters. Something occurred to him.

  
“What happened on Sakaar with you, anyway?”

  
“I mean, I fell, just as you had.”

  
“But you didn’t get a chair.”

  
“I have my ways.”

  
Thor had trouble believing that was the extent of it.

  
“Did you like it there?”

  
“Oh, heavens no. Are you serious? Sakaar’s disgusting, vapid, terrible—it really runs the gamut in horrible. Sure, the lawlessness and chaos had its upsides, but when the buildings are hackneyed together by scrap and garbage, what am I supposed to think?”

  
“I’m only curious. You did seem fond of its… dictator.”

  
Loki flared his nostrils. “Pure pragmatism, I assure you. I learned by the first day that gaining favor on Sakaar is a bit… lecherous, if you’re not the one stocking him with new ‘contenders’.”

  
Thor smiled at Loki. Loki hissed at Thor.

  
“I did _not._ ”

  
“You did use the word _lecherous_ , brother. I know what it means.”

  
“You do? I never would have guessed.”

  
Something _else_ occurred to Thor.

  
“Wait. Is that what he meant when he was looking at you like that? With the weird blinking stare? And you looked back, embarrassed, and I made that face, because I had no idea what he was getting—”

  
“—Thor?”

  
“Yes, Loki?”

  
“Don’t speak.”

  
_Huh?_ Thor turned only to find Loki staring not at him, but ahead. Still holding him by the arms, Thor looked for what he was seeing, eyes widening as he found it.

  
A massive corona shining into their eyes, a star was being born.

  
The noxious, burning envelope of gas and hydrogen swirled around the tip of the horizon, igniting in such a spectacular way that they both imagined an enormous boom echoing through the cosmos even if sound could not handle the vacuum of space. How many years had led to this day? Millions? Billions? Whole thousands of Asgardian lifespans, and they were witnessing an event that lasted mere seconds before the star swallowed all the matter important to it, burning with such fervor it mimed the memory of Sol.

  
They did not speak for a while; not until they were both sure it was done, the hazy corona floating around it now fading into an imperceptible smudge on the edge of space. The universe could now sigh and whisk it off, the dropship’s solar sensors surely almost at full capacity.

  
Even Loki found himself humbled.

  
“Do we name it?” Thor was the first to break the silence.

  
“I suppose we can,” Loki said after a pause, “We are the first ones to see it, and likely will be the only ones for a very long time.”

  
Thor met Loki’s eyes. Loki’s brows quirked.

  
“You’re not going to name it that.”

  
“Why not?”

  
“Well, for one thing, it would be confusing, because there’s no planets orbiting it yet, and there won’t be for as long as we’re alive—”

  
“—But you said we will be the only ones for a long time, brother. Where is the harm in remembering?”

  
Loki sneered. “Would you like the long or short version?”

  
“Perhaps you simply spend too much time remembering bad memories. This one is a good memory. A memory for all of us, and those that have fallen.”

  
Loki grew quiet.

  
“Asgard. This sun will be named Asgard. When we are done, let it be an Asgard for a new peoples, a new realm, for Asgard is no place, it is a being, and a being must be shared.”

  
Still Loki was quiet—Thor looked down.

  
He was crying. Thor let go of him to touch his face, then his own. He was crying too.

  
“Thor…”

  
Loki moved to stand. Thor followed. Loki turned, and then they found themselves hugging, squeezing really, Loki still crying, Thor still crying, the sun now set in the distance and gleaming, winking, corona completely gone but not forgotten, remembered, Asgard remembered, everyone remembered. The solar sensors quacking that they were at capacity, that all personnel should be inside the ship as the faster-than-light engines would engage shortly. Their hug, so strong, Loki touching his nose to Thor’s cheeks and Thor his.

  
“I do not want you to leave ever again.”

  
“You know I can’t make that promise… but you know I will always come back. For you. For Asgard.”

  
“We are family.”

  
They both smiled, now looking at the newborn star, holding one another, brother and brother. Thunder and mischief. King and king. Only gradually did they let go, wiping off the tears, and headed for the nearest bay hatch. Loki slipped in after Thor, and Thor wondered for the briefest second if Loki had already gone away again, that he would turn around to see nothing. Instead, he saw Loki beaming before he took his hand.

  
“We are family.”

  
In that moment, Thor was glad to be wrong.


End file.
